PRESS BOX.

Coaches to go public with final poll voting

May 27, 2005|By Tribune news services.

The coaches' poll will no longer be a secret. Balloting in the final regular-season poll will be made public for the first time.

Grant Teaff, executive director of the American Football Coaches Association, said most coaches did not want to release the votes because of the scrutiny it would bring but decided to vote for the change to quell any "uncalled-for controversy." He said there are no circumstances where the group would allow its in-season voting to be made public.

Teaff said the coaches have unanimously supported the concept of a championship game because they do not want to go back to the old system where there was a "so-called mythical championship which did not have the two best teams playing."

Kevin Weiberg, the Big 12 Conference commissioner and Bowl Championship Series coordinator, has said voting by coaches has taken on greater importance since the Associated Press pulled its poll out of the standings formula.